Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Accountability

Tonight I had my very first health coaching session. In cased you missed the memo, I decided to enroll in the health coach certification program from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. This is a year long program and will involve an overview of over 100 different health theories. Additionally, I will learn how to set up my own health coaching practice and from there the possibilities are endless. More to come about this specific program and what I'm learning in the near future. 

For tonight though, I had my first health coaching session via telephone with Debbie, whom resides in Connecticut. She did a health history with me which is the first step in a health coaching consultation. This involved asking me numerous questions regarding my health, family history, and personal satisfaction. It's kinda intense, but definitely a necessary first step. I definitely should have known this was coming, however, I was still speechless when she asked what goals I would like to set before our next session. Here's my honest reply, I suck at making goals. I'm not sure how I became this way, because I really do remember being that person in high school that had it all figured out. I loved writing goals. Now, they terrify me. I suppose this is a fear of failure for me. If I never put it into writing, then I can't possibly fail. Right? However, I need goals, I know I need something to work toward.

So here we go. My goals before my next session in January include: 
  1. Write my intentions for the program and make my big announcement to the world, aka, all my contacts about what I am studying and plan to gain from the program. (This is something that is intended to gain support from my personal contacts and let people know just exactly what I am doing.) 
  2. Keep a food journal for at least one week. (I've tried this before and always quit. However, I need to be more aware of exactly what I am putting in my body.)
I know that I really need this accountability and I'm excited to see how I can equip myself with the tools to help others make healthy lifestyle choices. I've got to start with myself, so here we go.

One of the questions during the health history was what do you typically eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner. My breakfast response was very easy because I generally always eat oatmeal however, my response for lunch and dinner was a bit difficult. I mentioned that I make a lot of soup and eat it for long periods of time. In honor of that response, I whipped up another batch of random soup.

Tonight's delight: Curried Red Lentil Soup

Containing: Onion, carrots, red bell pepper, garlic, red lentils, swiss chard, chicken broth, mixed curry spice blend, lemon juice, S&P

Wouldn't you know after I took several bites, I realized I had added a bit much of the cayenne pepper and added a bit of plain yogurt to cool it down a bit. I ate it with sourdough masa crackers. Pretty delish and perfect on this cool evening!



2 comments:

  1. I'm so excited you are doing this! I would want you to be my health coach. Most of the time, I feel everything about goals is hard. Setting them, working towards them, achieving them...You'll figure out what your goals look like! Keep me posted!

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  2. Story,,,, When I was in beauty school, I read where if you had been licensed and working for 5 years, you could go to almost any other state and not have to take their state boards, or a much reduced test in order to get licensed in that state. So I subconsciously set a goal of 5 years. When the 5 years was up, I kind of fell apart because I knew I really didn't want to move out of state, and I didn't have another goal to reach for. I was really in the dumps. I had a thriving business where I was, working all sorts of hours and the only way to move up, was to raise prices, which wasn't happening at that time. If I left and moved somewhere else, I'd have to start all over building my client base and would I really be ahead. I was stuck.

    Mom finally came to visit and we talked for quite awhile and she asked if I wanted to go back to school. That's when I decided to make the move and did. Later on in a class I learned about self actualization,,,attaining your goals. But the point was made that you always need more than one goal to reach for or you can lose your sense of direction. So have back up plans if one route doesn't work out. csl

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